Wear your quick-change outfit. It's Third Ward Diva Night, and the shopping opps are ripe for plucking. Fashion, food and fun, all in one luxe locale.

Perhapsthe best idea after all that shopping is to watch others exercise. Three faculty members of the University of Wisconsin Dance Department join with local composer Tim Russell to celebrate "Springdances: Impermanence" Thursday night. Question, though: What's more impermanent-- dance or Spring in Wisconsin? | May 9, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

Pop artist Robert Indiana, who designed the basketball floor that made Milwaukee famous and that was the home of the Milwaukee Bucks and Marquette Warriors from 1977 to 1988, will not be able to attend a reception at the U.S. Cellular Area Friday evening. The artist, who lives in Maine, is ill.

Rumble-limited zone

The streets of Milwaukee will be quaking and shaking this coming week as Harley-Davidson bikes and their owners roar into town for the Harley family's 110th reunion. But not everything happening here will be motorcycle-related. | Aug. 23, 2013»Read Full Article(1)

Near the close of the first of five stories composing "Archangel," Andrea Barrett's new collection, a 12-year-old boy spending the summer on his uncle's farm puts his head under the water in a pond. He closes his eyes, "concentrating on what he could feel and hear. Small currents, slight changes in temperature. Sounds, more than he'd imagined."

It's been a summer of discovery for Constantine Boyd; Uncle Taggart is an inventor as well as a farmer — and, as suggested by the title of Barrett's story, "The Investigators," a naturally inquisitive explorer of the world around him. | Aug. 23, 2013»Read Full Article

One understands why Odysseus is upset when returning home to find a gang of suitors ransacking his house and terrifying Penelope, his long-suffering wife. But what's with ordering that 12 of Penelope's maids be hanged for sleeping with them — particularly when one considers Odysseus' own seven-year dalliance with the ravishing Calypso?

That's one of the questions Margaret Atwood tackles in "The Penelopiad," a novella that morphed into a play. Under rising director Leda Hoffmann, a cast of 13 women is giving it an evocative staging in a playground under the Holton St. viaduct. | Aug. 23, 2013»Read Full Article

Sitting in a back corner at the Swinging Door with Ryan Schleicher of WMSE-FM (91.7) a few months ago, I was faced with an unexpected proposition. Do I want to talk about art, architecture and urban design on the radio?

My initial thought was -- well, of course not. I am a writer, not a talker. And anyone who knows me knows my calendar is already filled to bursting with what I'm doing for the platforms I juggle as it is. | Aug. 23, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

The Black Crowes have added a Nov. 8 show at the Riverside Theater, 116 W. Wisconsin Ave., as part of the second half of their 2013 North American tour.

The veteran rockers are in the middle of their first tour in two years. The band has said it has no plans for touring after its 2013 show, with Chris Robinson and company focusing on solo projects next year. The fall tour begins Sept. 5 in Cooperstown, N.Y. | Aug. 23, 2013»Read Full Article

The Soup Market, a soup-and-sandwich shop with three locations, plans to open two more by October.

Dave Jurena, co-owner with Tim Talsky, said one shop will fill the spot left vacant by Broadway Bakery in the Milwaukee Center, 111 E. Kilbourn Ave. It’s expected to open sometime in September. | Aug. 23, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(1)

It might be natural to worry that Sanford, a bastion of continuity for more than two decades, would change too much after its sale in late 2012. My only worry, though, was that it might not change enough.

After 23 years on the lower east side, operating a premier fine-dining restaurant with a national reputation, chef Sanford D'Amato and his wife, Angie, sold their restaurant to their chef de cuisine. | Aug. 23, 2013»Read Full Article(4)